OTTAWA – Quebecor and MTS Allstream are not alone among telecom and cable firms in their desire for a wireless spectrum auction that would shackle the "big three" mobile phone companies in Canada.
Among those aligned with the Quebec and Manitoba companies that have been leading the charge to have spectrum in the auction set aside for new entrants – and who have also proposed other rules like mandated roaming and tower sharing – include: Cogeco Cable, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, Shaw Communications, EastLink, the Assembly of First Nations and Toronto Hydro Telecom, among others.
The list…
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KELOWNA – The CommTech trade show and seminars, which will begin tomorrow in Kelowna at the Coast Capri Hotel is bigger and better than last year.
Forty-three companies have pre-registered to attend, a 30% increase in companies over 2006, says organizer Janice Lee of JLL & Associates. Exhibitor space has been sold out since the winter – and that’s with 35% more vendors than last year. "We are also offering 25% more seminars this year," said Lee.
Telus, Connect Telecommunications Solutions and Power & Tel are the top sponsors of the event.
Look for reports this week from the…
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OTTAWA – The Minister of Industry will receive a blizzard of paper tomorrow as incumbent wireless operators, and those who would like to be one, submit their opinions on how the next auction of wireless spectrum should be run.
The newcomers, led jointly by Quebecor and MTS Allstream, have not backed off their rhetoric at all. They want into the fast-growing wireless market and they don’t want to pay through the nose for entry with a costly purchase of spectrum at auction.
Keying on a few lines from the 2006 Telecom Policy Review Report (the one which the…
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COUNT CANADA’S SATELLITE and cable companies (outside Quebec, anyway) as generally pleased with the Commission’s new policy on over-the-air TV broadcasters.
"We think it’s a very balanced decision and we’re happy with it," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind.
"I think it’s overall a balanced decision," added Shaw Communications vice-president, regulatory, Ken Stein.
"They were clearly listening to everybody because they’ve come up with a balanced decision that reflects all parties representations I think," explained Bell ExpressVu president Gary Smith.
Only Telco TV’s Ann Mainville-Neeson stayed off the balance beam, saying: "Kudos to the Commission for a very…
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OTTAWA – Saying the wireless market is not competitive enough in Canada, Quebecor and MTS Allstream have joined forces to lobby both government and Canadians so that the companies are given a break in 2008’s wireless spectrum auction.
“Canada needs to permit new competitors in the wireless sector to ensure consumers are offered lower prices and advanced services which other countries already enjoy,” says a press release from the Coalition for Wireless Competition issued today.
Citing the oft-referenced but little understood Telecom Policy Review Panel report which “identified the need for a more efficient and vibrant wireless industry…
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WINNIPEG – MTS Allstream has applied to the CRTC for local telephone forbearance in Winnipeg.
MTS Allstream is the latest company to ask for residential phone service deregulation following the April 4 announcement by Canada’s Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that telecommunications companies can apply for a relaxation of regulations in communities where customers can choose between at least three service providers with their own network infrastructure, one of which can be a wireless provider, and where they meet specific Quality of Service (QoS) measures for six months.
Last month, Telus filed for forbearance in Vancouver and Edmonton, and Bell…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC wants to know to what extend local number portability (LNP) has to be supported for access-dependent local voice over Internet Protocol services.
The commission wants interveners to comment on implementation constraints, technical issues, customer demand and the cost-effectiveness of support for LNP in the following situations:
1. secondary numbers assigned from within the company’s operating territory, 2. secondary numbers assigned from outside the company’s operating territory, 3. primary numbers assigned from outside the company’s operating territory, 4. with respect to the porting-in of telephone numbers.
This proceeding will not include matters relating to the recovery…
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TORONTO – After spending $7 billion over two decades to build what’s become the largest wireless company in Canada, Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers said he is more than a little miffed at the lobbying tactics being deployed by one of his business partners.
After noting on a conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday afternoon that Rogers Wireless has had in its 20 years, "losses for 19 and profits for one," the company founder set out in no uncertain terms how he feels about lobbying spearheaded by Videotron to decrease the Quebec media company’s cost of entry to…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today released new pricing rules that will govern the rates charged by large telephone companies for local telephone services, until forbearance arrives, that is.
The rules, known collectively as the price cap regime, will come into effect on June 1, 2007, and apply to Bell Canada, Telus, SaskTel, MTS Allstream and Bell Aliant. It also lets the incumbent telcos increase their rates for payphone service to up to a dollar.
The new regime only applies in regions where local phone service has not been deregulated. So they will apply everywhere at first and quickly become…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today released new pricing rules that will govern the rates charged by large telephone companies for local telephone services, until forbearance arrives.
The rules, known collectively as the price cap regime, will come into effect on June 1, 2007, and apply to Bell Canada, Telus, SaskTel, MTS Allstream and Bell Aliant.
They only apply in regions where local phone service has not been deregulated. So they will apply everywhere at first and quickly become less and less important as markets are forborne from regulation.
"This third-generation price cap regime provides greater pricing flexibility for large…
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